I stumbled across this thread because I haven't been around here for a while. I ended up reading all (currently) seven pages. Loved every minute. All of the content you have created for this sim is outstanding!

Well already at the 10th update post and I still have a few days left before I go back to work from the holidays. I got a lot farther than I expected in December. To recap quickly: The development of this mod started roughly mid November where the rest of the month was spent modeling the make0 body and entire interior section. By early December I had the first non-damaged body working in game with basic textures. Fast forward to the end of the month all 4 non-damaged versions of the makes and all 4 damaged versions of the bodies are now included. Essentially the exterior view of all 4 makes is now 'done' both modeling and code wise. There are still many things to work on so release is still far away and I'll cover the future roadmap in a bit. Before that though I'll cover what has happened since the last update.

After I got the 3 other makes in their non-damaged version into the game the next focus was giving them damage. So just as I did with make0 I had to do the same process to create damage for the 3 other makes. I won't repeat myself since it was a similar process in doing damage. The main change was the magnitude of work was 3 times the amount now and also the room for error goes way up. It may seem like just easy copy/pasting and renaming model files for all the various damage lods and pieces but with so many pieces if you don't stay focused it gets pretty overwhelming. To put into perspective just how many pieces I had to do for all 4 makes when it comes to damage here are all the folders for each make and their respective LOD levels:

This is all the folders collapsed too. Inside each one is a good 10+ models for interior and exterior of each make labeled per lod. Every piece had to be named correctly and also the damage morph lattice had to be properly created/copied as well. It can get really confusing working with so many lod level on each make so to make it easier I did one make at a time focusing on LOD1 first then doing the rest of its lods. Once I had the damage lods done for one make I added the damage code for that make to my main code and compiled it. This way I verified everything code wise was correct and in-game damage for that particular make was looking good. Then I moved on the the remaining ones and repeated the same process.

Now if I wanted too I could have used the same exact damage lattice I had made for make0 but I've gotten so far it would be a shame to have each make when damaged exhibit the same exact visual 'damage'. So I make a unique damage look for each one. This will give a bit more variation when a pile of cars get damaged and make it just that more realistic looking so not everything looks so carbon copy in a wreck occurring. Here is what all 4 makes look when damaged at 100% with my little modifier in 3ds max:

17a = make0
77a = make1
7a = make2
07a = make3

With each make and injecting the damage code into my main code file to compile it was adding hundreds and hundreds of lines. Thankfully I did all the work really with make0 already. Like I mentioned in previous posts becasue I had strict naming conventions for all my model names and the names I defined them in the code doing a simple find and replace query allowed me to create all new code for damage on make1, make2, and make3 pretty effortlessly. I had a few silly errors as a result to me not naming certain models in my 3ds max scene correctly but as far as the code went it compiled perfectly. There currently 7977 lines of codes for the mod now and it takes the make3do program to compile it a few seconds of waiting compared to being instantly done now. Of course the last thing to do was stick all 4 makes together in a 'carset' and cause some wrecks to see all the damage in a demo:

You might have noticed from the title of the video or the text in it the mod it is now labeled as 'beta' and this is correct. With a 4 makes in the build and they all have their 4 damage models with all LODS the mod is in a state it can begin initial testing for performance/stability. I still have a few things to clean up but I am feeling pretty good about getting some others in to test it out and see if they find any problems. I've tried to be pretty rigorous in testing already and aggressive with performance friendly lods so I think if anyone can run intensive mods like DMR or the new MENCS mod then they should be on par with using this one. You may not be able to notice without me telling you but for the above video and screenshots I compressed the paint schemes down from the overkill 4096x2048 to the recommended 2048x1024 template size. I actually managed to when I had all 4 makes in the build to make my NR2003 crash on my Armory track, once I put the schemes to no longer being 5mb overkill files and down to 1.5 to 900kb files the crashing no longer occurs. Surprisingly at other tracks that were intensive even with the overkill settings I couldn't get it to crash on a race start so I'd say that is a good win considering now with the 2048x1024 size stability is solid on any track from what I've tried.

Now onto the beta itself, I'll be ready to start taking in a few helping hands but it will probably start out quite small (maybe 2-4). Along with this I won't be just letting anyone in, I want tried and true community members that I know I can trust (and I know). I don't want just people who want to 'test' to get a joyride for a few minuets than call it a day. I'd like individuals who are both interested in the mod but also have a proven track record of knowledge with NR2003. I will have a more detailed post in a week or so specifically on who I'll be looking for and what I'm looking for test wise. For now I still need to find a central place where we can meet (discord or a forum I create) and I need to make sure I have a ready to go beta build of the mod in a good beta state to test out.

These betas will be closed so you won't be seeing a few 'lucky' users racing, posting screenshots, and talking about their race 5 season 1 five wide last lap pass with the ICR mod or anything. It will still just be me relaying the data within my dev posts as they come. The goal isn't to give the mod to a few so they can get a head start on painting or starting their series seasons, it will fundamental testing to make sure the mod is good and on par with what everyone would expect from any other mod. I don't think I can make a 'perfect' mod and I know there might be some issues but I can try to clean up as much as I can so it works the best on most people's pc's with the least issues both performance and visually. To accomplish this I need the enthusiastic few who can verify all is good before the masses get it for release.

With all that said, while the beta has begun the mod still has a lot things to be accomplished before it gets anywhere near an official release:

Driver - need to create the exterior driver model with their lods and add them to the templates for each make

Interior model - the cockpit is still using default NR2003 cup model, I still need to create the interior models, textures, and set it up in the code

Rear-view mirror model - the rear view model of the car that appears in the mirror for the player is still using default, I need to create this rear-view scene along with adding it into the code

Templates - The templates are still in an alpha phase with messy/uncompressed layers. I also need to add the specific shading/decals for all the manufacturers along with contingency sets and extra body details I've not added yet.

Renders - Render scenes/getting someone competent in 3ds max to make max render scenes the public can use to make. I also need to try and see if I can get a working carviewer file so painters have a way to preview their work as they paint,or at least an alternative method compared to carviewer.

All of the above will probably take several more weeks of work and possibly months so there is still a ton to do. Also this next week I go back to my regular day job so things will slow down again and I probably will have dev posts out at a slower pace too.

Glad the damage is looking' damaged' lol. I can never be too sure on my own if its good enough but I think once the mod has paint schemes and manufacturers on the bodies it will look even better wrecked since there will be more information on the car bodies displaced.

Nothing that hasn't been said, but I'm loving this so far, and especially loving being able to follow your development process. Its also nice that you appear to be enjoying it as well! Can't wait to see the finished product.

@Mystical February of 2019 was the last time I released a mod. (Trans Am mod) During the past year, I've only modeled a couple of small cars for friends privately, and tinkered with other stuff. I had pretty much lost my motivation for modeling a mod from scratch all over again. I typically did everything like you are doing from A to Z as a one man army in the early days plus doing my own paints, for a league I ran with a bud of mine. I had really no intention of starting to create mods again anytime soon, I was pretty much happy with doing some odds and ends with folks every once in a while the past year. But watching you the past few weeks, has motivated me to actually want to get off my arse and maybe start thinking about a new project for myself. Like you it will just be me creating everything from scratch.

Back on topic, your doing a great job, keep it up. Your even motivating old modelers like me to come out of retirement and start thinking of doing a few projects.

i've been following along since you first posted test shots on the screenshot thread. since you're doing it with Blender, it motivated me to reinstall Blender and give it a shot. the interior shots scare the hell out of me. not because of how it looks, but because it reminds me i have to do more than just the exterior models lol

i've been following along since you first posted test shots on the screenshot thread. since you're doing it with Blender, it motivated me to reinstall Blender and give it a shot. the interior shots scare the hell out of me. not because of how it looks, but because it reminds me i have to do more than just the exterior models lol

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Yeah you just take it one part at a time. The modeling itself for me was not what took the longest (its mostly just basic shapes), it was trying to fit it all in correct proportion into the inside of the car shell. Adjusting the rollbars on the sides of the window and front was the most time consuming part to make it look right.

and remember cut corners. I don't mean do poor quality but don't model one side of the rollbar for example if you can just use a mirror modifier to do that work for you, also if you know a section of a part will never been seen from any angle just delete the faces to not only save memory in NR2003 but also free up more UV space. The goal is to create the illusion of something in 3d form whether that be with geometric shapes or good textures to give it the appearance of something.

When this mod is done and I get to do a video tutorial series I'd like to not just show how to make a mod but also as many tricks as I can along the way.

Interior looks good so far. The mod is probably going to kill my framerate though. I would like to know how much duplicate geometry you need for everything to be rendered properly from both interior and exterior views.

Interior looks good so far. The mod is probably going to kill my framerate though. I would like to know how much duplicate geometry you need for everything to be rendered properly from both interior and exterior views.

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I'm not quite sure what you mean by duplicate geometry. Do you mean high poly count? If you can run the MENCS2019 mod you should be able to run this one. Mine has similar poly count and I did very aggressive LODs where I cull/deleted a lot of parts as the car gets farther away. By LOD 11 the mod is using fake square wheels and the car body is only a coupe polys. I also downscale all the texture resolutions from 2048 all the way down to 256 squares by lod 11 as well.

I have not started external testing with anyone else yet but once I do I'll have more data from those who have different pc setups and see if they run into any issues. Its not in the plans now but if it turns out lower end pcs struggle I may consider making a low end version for the mod where I downscale the textures even more and also replace LOD1 model with LOD3 in the code. So I would essentially be offering 2 versions of my mod: standard and low. Again, not planned but an idea I have if it helps lower end pc's. I don't think it would take too much work to do. I am hoping this mod works just fine on any hardware though so I don't have to dot he extra work.

By "duplicate geometry", I mean geometry that you have to have two copies of (one version for interior and another for exterior) in order to render in both the internal and external views. I currently run at maximum setting, so I can lower the detail level if needed. By the way, it appears that your website domain expired or something.

By "duplicate geometry", I mean geometry that you have to have two copies of (one version for interior and another for exterior) in order to render in both the internal and external views. I currently run at maximum setting, so I can lower the detail level if needed. By the way, it appears that your website domain expired or something.

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For interior that is a different scene so when you switch to interior or exterior the model scene you see is different and the previous scene disappears and no longer renders in the game until you switch back to it. The interior I've not built yet but its only a section fo the car and it will have slightly higher detail since you sit very close to it but its literally just the dash and a small section fo the sides of the car when you look left or right. I will go into more detail on the interior scene once I get tot hat part ad what it looks like.

As for my site, yeah something broke with my domain a few days ago where the racing subdomina I had no longer works even though everything appears fine as I can tell. I temporarily have it all moved to http://armorydigital.net/ for the time being. I hadn't touched anything for months so I don't know what is wrong but I hope to fix it. If not, I may just cancel my hosting with the current company and find a new place and rebuilt my site.